Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-05-31


their services, and their lives, If need
be, in the defense of their country,
about six hundred thousand are, after
a lapse of twenty-five years, still living.
Where are the others? Four hundred
thousand yielded up their lives during
the war, either in battle or by
disease. Their bones lie near where they
fell on many a Southern battlefield.
Thousands are buried in the historic
soil OF old Virginia, Oh the fatal fields of
the two Manassas, at Fredericksburg
in the swamps of the Chuck ahominy,
about Pc ersburg and Richmond, on the
plains about Winchester in the Shenap-
doah valley, where the living Sheridan
won the immortal laurels that adorn his
brow; on the field of Gettysburg, in
Pennsylvania, where the forces of the
gallant Hancock withstood, on Cemetery
Hill, the mpetuous charges of the vic.
torious Longstreet. and started the in.
vading army of Lee back to Virginia;
in the sand pits and pine forests
of the Carolinas, and about the out
works of Charleston; in the mountains
and valleys of Georgia and before
Atlanta, where the gallant Nc Pherson
fell and the intrepid Logan gained hon.
orable distinction; along the rivers and
bayous of Louisiana, and at historic
Chalmette, where from the ancient
cypress the gray Spanish moss hangs
in stately and eternal symbol of mourn.
ing; at Nashville, where the solderiy
Thomas turned to disaster the conf
dent attack of Hood; along the path
way Of Sherman's ''inarch to the sea,
the memory of which gallant achieve.
ment is perpetuated in song and
story; at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson,
where the imperious demand upon Buck.
ner by the immortal soldier and patriot
Ulysses 5. Grant, for an immediate ana
unconditional surrender" first attracted
the attention of the country to the sterl-
ing qualities that atterward placed him
In the supreme command of the national
armies and President of the United
States; at Shiloh, where Grant seized
victory from apparent defeat. and where
the gallant Union General Wallace and
the equally gallant Confederate leader,
Albert Sidney Johnston, fell, while at
the head of their troops in the heat of
battle; beneath the heights. of Vicks.
butRt tht SCiSO VI WHiCil was dttlOUR tuC
most remarkable in the modern military
annals, aud which alone would have
placed the name of Grant among the
worlds greatest military heroes; and ON
a thousand other fields of greater and
less renown throughout the South. Since
the close of the war a million others
who bore arms in the national service
have paid the debt of nature and are
buried beneath the shade of the maple
and the willow, or the elm in the quiet
cemeteries of the North, in the mount
aims and plains of the West, or 10 for
eign countries. Thus vast army OF
|, 400, 900 Union soldiers have passed tC
the other shore.
If the spirits of those who have gone
beyond mortal sight ever return to the
forms and conditions OF this life, how
grand a spectacle would that great army
present, attended by the Generals ant
the statesmen who assisted it, in wei
coming some gallant comrade TO immor
tality. Grouped about the tall form o
the benign emancipation Lincoln, on'
might imagine the shades of the severe
ly just Stanton, the statesmanlike Sew
ard, the powerful Morton. the radica
Stephens, the scholarly Sumner, tn,
generous Wilson, the martyred Garfield
the great war governors. Andrews
Yates, Fenton and Todd. At the hea,
of that army, which would embrac'
majority of every company, regi
ment and brigade that ever entered tn
volunteer service, would ride the grea
and generous General, and immorta
commander, Grant; beside him tn
naval hero, Farragut, with the brigh
light in his eyes that illumined them a
he was bound to the mast in Mobil
bay; and following in rapid succession
the first commander of the Army of tn
Potomac, Mcclellan; then Thomas
Hancock, Burr side, Meade, Mcdowell
Mcpherson, Logan, Baker, Reynolds
Wallace, Sedgwick and host of other
as brave but less known to fame. Ii
martial array this shadowy host, g,
mighty in life, would extend a vast dis
tance beyond the range of sight, com
pany after company, regiment after regi
ment brigade after brigade, division
after division, corps after corps. arm.
after army-infantry, cavalry and artil
lery. No sight SO grand as this woult
be has ever met mortal eyes.
In all the elements that go to make
grand army, that which fought the wa
worlds history. 1t embraced the fowe
of the men of our country within tn
ages prescribed for military duty, ant
not few enlisted who were either un
der Is or over 43 years of age. 1t wa
an army of intelligent men, who volun
tarily submitted to irksome military dis
cipline, the fatigue of the long marcel
and the hazard of battle, with its at
tendant horrors of wounds, imprison
ment and death, in the cause of nationa
unity. 1t fought an enemy whose sol
diers were their own countrymen, en-
dowed with courage equal to theil
own, commanded by such justly dis
tinguished Generals as Lee, Jackson
the Johnstons, the Hills, Beauregard
Longstreet, Cleburne and Magruder
who defended interior lines in country
with which they were thoroughly fla
miliar. 1t fought the ground over and
over again; and, although meeting many
reverses and some bitter defeats, it re-
mained steadfastly and courageously in
the field, marching and fighting. until
the final surrender at Appomattox. Its
quiet dissolution af'e the struggle had
ceased was a not unimportant part of its
grand history. Within few months
that magnificent army of q million men
quietly melted away, and its members
became again plain citizens of the Re-
public, devoting themselves to the calm
pursuits of peace.
On the Pacific coast, at the greatest
extremity from the centers of popula.
ton, we have comparatively few graves
Of deceased soldiers. Such as there are
are tenderly remembered by their former
comrades and fellow citizens on this
day. In the quiet graveyard at San
Fernando is the last resting place OF
Colonel A. B. Moffitt, which has been
tenderly decorated by loving hands to.
day. He was we'll known to a majority
of those present, and to some con-
nected by the tenderest ties. He
was native of Ohio, and at the age OF